Wednesday, November 7, 2007

According to news reports and a federal indictment, a Fresno State student assistant who worked at the IT help desk obtained his supervisor's password and used it to access a file containing the PeopleSoft usernames and passwords for university employees, including the registrar, extension academic program registrar, and the academic records coordinator. He then used the account information to change his own grades and those of a friend. A federal grand jury has returned indictments against the pair with charges including conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, unauthorized access of computer and identity theft.

The incidents happened in 2004, and were discovered during an audit intended to check the PeopleSoft data conversion process. The campus apparently still does not know whether personal information belonging to anyone else was accessed.